CCF Busy Smashing Activist Myths
It’s been a busy week here at the Center for Consumer Freedom. We’ve been smashing scare stories about meat and the environment. We’ve been pointing out “organic” hypocrisy. And we’ve been calling out the dirty secret of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and the real agenda of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS).
This weekend saw the celebration of Earth Day, which comes with its own share of diet myths, endorsed by PETA and HSUS. Supposedly animal agriculture contributes more greenhouse emissions than driving, but as our Executive Director told The Daily Caller, that’s based on a sloppy comparison and third-world standards:
If that sounds a little too incredible, that’s because it is: The report’s own co-author later admitted that it uses flawed, apples-and-oranges comparisons in its calculations. Essentially, the report uses a more sweeping accounting for agriculture than it does for other sectors of life.
A much more reliable measure comes from the Environmental Protection Agency, which calculates that all agriculture accounts for less than 7 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Animal agriculture accounts for just 4 percent.
“Organic” green food myths are even more nonsensical. “Organic” methods can’t feed the world and even trying to use them on a mass scale would put an unbelievable strain on the natural world. We continued:
If we did things purely by “organic” means and rejected synthetic methods, we could only support a world population of about 4 billion people. And if you think needing an additional 1.5 million cows to replace “pink slime” sounds like a lot, we’d require 1 billion more livestock for just the U.S. to replace synthetic nitrogen (plus 2 billion acres to plant feed crops for these animals).
No surprise then that British organic movement leader Peter Melchett once said that “Science doesn’t tell us the answers.”
Our Senior Research Analyst also advised Floridians that PETA’s shocking proposal to turn the Treasure Coast into a “no-birth community” for dogs and cats is very much in character. He noted that PETA’s apparent view that “killing is kindness [… is] a strange view of ethics.”
Meanwhile, our HSUS advertising parody video “Lawyers in Cages” has been making the rounds on the internet, drawing tens of thousands of views in a few days. HSUS’s fundraising films might show abused dogs and cats, but most donation money tends to end up supporting factory fundraisers, anti-farmer lobbyists, and the HSUS pension fund. As for HSUS itself, we’ll quote from our video: “PETA with suits and deodorant.”
